To some, Ed Sanders is one of the living experts on the subject of Charles Manson and his family and their slaughter of actress Sharon Tate and her friends. (Sanders’ biography of Tate came out in the spring.)
To others less attuned to bestsellerdom, he is a legendary poet and counter-cultural presence – a former Yippie, member of the Fugs and the editor of the magazine that would have been called “Fug You: A Magazine of the Arts” if he’d been as euphemistic about it as the rock group was. (He wasn’t.)
He’s all of it really. But on Thursday, he’ll be reading from his new poem “The Final Years of Robert Kennedy: An Investigative Poem” in the Burchfield Penney Art Center. And on Friday, his two days at the Burchfield Penney will conclude with a program honoring Charles Burchfield’s painting “Sunflower Sutra” and will read Allen Ginsberg’s 1955 poem of the same name.